In 1980, game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was working on a new kind of arcade game for Nintendo. It was challenging, colorful, and funny, too. This game featured Popeye the Sailor Man, who was experiencing a resurgence in popularity at the time, as the player character and hero, saving the damsel in distress Olive Oyl from the villain Bluto. The action was loosely based on a famous sequence from a 1934 Popeye cartoon. Sounds pretty good! Whatever happened to that game?
The game was approved, but the licensing for the Popeye characters could not be settled in time for the game release. Nintendo knew that the Miyamoto game had promise, so they changed the design of the characters. Instead of Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto, the characters became Jumpman, Pauline, and Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong was released in 1981 and became a runaway hit. In 1982, Donkey Kong Jr. was released and Jumpman was given the name Mario.
Read the story behind Donkey Kong and see the Popeye cartoon that inspired it at Thumbsticks. -Thanks, WTM!